


Sugarplums (incomplete)

by marcustyphoon



Series: Hallowtide [2]
Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Halloween
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 15:26:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16478117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcustyphoon/pseuds/marcustyphoon
Summary: I'm not quite done, but I wanted to get some of this story posted on Halloween!I haven't proofread or edited this yet, and I think some things will straight up need to be changed to make sense with some later bits.See the note on the previous story for photos of my original characters and stuff.And definitely read that one first! It's chapter 1 of this story, except that I wrote it 3 years ago.





	Sugarplums (incomplete)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not quite done, but I wanted to get some of this story posted on Halloween! 
> 
> I haven't proofread or edited this yet, and I think some things will straight up need to be changed to make sense with some later bits.
> 
> See the note on the previous story for photos of my original characters and stuff. **And definitely read that one first! It's chapter 1 of this story, except that I wrote it 3 years ago.**

"You're... definitely sure you don't want help with that, Cass?"

The potted plant swaying a bit haphazardly through Cassie's living room narrowly avoided knocking down a deactivated golem, then bumped into a stack of purple crystals, scattering them across the floor with a clatter. "Nah, I've got this! You wouldn't fit between all of this gear, anyways, right? Asura scale, and all."

A yelp of pain from the plant, and a string of curses, corresponded with it crashing directly into a tall, narrow bookshelf filled with scrolls and decorated with—strangely—wintersday lights. Haneul caught and steadied the case with ease, trying not to laugh. "Right, of course. You're doing far better than I would have, no doubt."

"Hmph!" As she successfully set the plant down on a small, hovering cart and appeared from behind it clutching her foot, Cassie tried to look indignant. "Obviously us Asura are the superior race when it comes to such ~elementary~ tasks as, y'know, picking up and moving large items." She grinned, kicking aside a crystal and limping a bit over to a closet full of coats and gardening supplies. "And reaching tippy-top shelves without a stepladder, those kinds of things," she added, while grabbing a rake and shovel and adding them to the cart.

"Naturally." Haneul, whose head was nearly brushing the ceiling, took the uppermost item from the closet and set it on the floor. "So my getting this picnic basket for you is the least-efficient way of going about things."

Cassie nodded jokingly. "And we can't have that!" She waltzed over to the kitchen, obtaining a few thermoses, some wrapped packages from the counter, and an armful of whatever was on the shelf labelled "snacks and whatnot" in gold marker and tossed them into the basket, then grabbed the bunch of flowers out of the vase on the 3-seat dining table and added that too. "I can clean everything up later, right?" she muttered. "Yeah... alright, we're good!"

As they left the apartment, with Haneul carrying the oversized basket, she surveyed their loot with puzzlement. "So... I have to ask," she began as they left the building through a side door. "You said we were going halloween... sailing, right? And thus we need... a rake? And a potted plant?"

Cassie nodded absently. "Mhmm. Standard procedure." She looked out into the distance, squinting into the afternoon sun reflecting from the ocean, and trudged down a steep gravel path towards the Rata Sum river without another word.

The hovercart's hum, usually steady and barely noticeable when on a level surface, was instead a quiet undulating tone as it passed over rocks and small roots, tipping back and forth slightly. Haneul could faintly hear the ocean waves breaking and the cries of seagulls over by the port, and some smaller waves lapping at the shore through the jungle foliage ahead. This didn't seem much like Cass, she thought: unlike most Asura she knew (which admittedly wasn't many), she generally wasn't one to be mysterious just for the sake of being mysterious. And unless she had a brilliant halloween costume idea involving Haneul being a gardener for some reason... on a sailboat... and having a picnic... then this seemed rather mysterious.

Oh, well. Standard procedure with Asura: just go along with it, and everything will become clear eventually. She followed along for a few minutes, pausing to examine some beautiful orchids and glimpsing what might have been a flying squirrel, before they arrived at a pretty little beach with a small wooden pier reaching out into the lazy river waters. Three small sailboats were tied up there, one of which had "Athena" inscribed in small gold letters on the side of the hull. Haneul followed Cassie up to that one, and helped load everything aboard while her friend donned durable-looking gloves and untied a number of knots to release the sail and rudder.

"Care to do the honors?" Cassie was offering her a rope, with which she easily unfurled the sail with a series of tugs. It sported a faint green College of Synergetics logo in its center and thin gold trim around the edges. "Another task us Asura are perfectly suited for," Cassie added, sticking her tongue out: "Pulling ropes that're attached to lift heavy things."

"Of course," Haneul smiled back, giving the rope back to Cassie so she could tie it to a cleat on the mast. "And us Norn are perfectly suited for sitting in the back of this boat, and not getting hit in the face by the, um... boom, right? Is that what this is called?" She indicated the bar at the bottom of the sail, which was at high-chest-height for her, but which the Asura could easily duck underneath even while standing.

"The boom, yep! But yeah, sorry about that—Asura scale strikes again," Cassie replied. "You can sit up in front if you'd like, though I was going to let you steer."

Haneul decided to give it a try, and soon they'd cast off, with Cassie trimming the sails and giving her a miniature lesson in sailing technique and theory. ("...and if I say, 'ready to jibe,' duck really quickly," was the important part.) They crossed nearly to the far shore, then turned about and headed slowly up towards the ocean, Cassie pointing at certain trees or distinctive rocks on the shore to hold a course towards.

"Well, this is pretty easy," Haneul remarked after an uneventful turn across the wind. "I always figured sailing would be much more difficult. Or at least, that there'd be more... I dunno, fo'c'sles and sextants, and measuring everything in leagues, or whatever."

"Believe me, there are," Cassie replied, standing and reaching into a storage bin below her seat to produce a complicated-looking mechanical instrument. "If you're the captain of a proper ship going to Orr, or something, you'd better be able to read one of these. But we haven't even gotten to open ocean yet—you might reconsider your difficulty judgement a bit if the wind picks up out there! I checked the report, though: should be calm and clear tonight." She dropped the sextant unceremoniously back into the compartment, then cringed slightly at the resulting thump. "Whoops."

Haneul raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Eh, if I've got you here, I imagine we'll be fine. If all else fails, you can both steer and trim the sails while I swab the poop deck... and fight off the pirate army we'll inevitably run into."

"Pfft." Cassie grabbed the broom from the floor of the boat and jumped up onto the front deck, miming a swordfight with an invisible enemy. "Scarlet's aetherblades will never take my candied nuts! Not over my dead body! Yarrr!"

Haneul burst out laughing, and the Asura followed suit. "Owl's feathers. That little one had quite the setup, huh? What was her name again... 'Tiny'?"

Cassie replaced the broom and sat back down. "Taimi. Yeah, she's quite a character. I have no idea how she procured intact aetherblade tech without a project proposal... although I guess she could have just made one up. Or found a sympathetic researcher. Or reverse-engineered it from observation and first principles." She paused. "Or maybe there was a working prototype in Scarlet's lab in Dry Top. You can never tell with her."

"Wait, what?" Haneul spluttered. "Reverse-engineered... did you say Scarlet's lab? Who let a progeny get their hands on Scarlet's... anything? That sounds ridiculously dangerous and irresponsible."

Cassie grinned and gestured vaguely at the city-in-a-floating-cube towering over the scenery behind them. "'Ridiculously dangerous and irresponsible.' Yep, that narrows it down to a good 75% of my entire race. On the other hand, though, I guess most researchers wouldn't let a progeny touch even a transducer of Scarlet's tech, because they'd want the publishing credit all to theirselves." She shrugged. "Not many are as smart as Snaff or Hamm, and realize that if you mentor the young, you can basically take full credit for anything they accomplish afterwards."

"Aha.... I guess that makes sense," Haneul replied. "Us Norn, to the contrary, glue a parent's name on the end of the kid's regardless of whether they taught the little one anything useful at any point. So... at least it's not that?"

"I guess that's worse." Cassie stuck her tongue out. "But in this case... no one really *lets* Taimi get her hands on anything, as much as no one manages to stop her. She's technically under Zojja, I think, but for all practical purposes she does whatever she wants. And in that case, she was really into researching Scarlet."

"That's..." Haneul tilted her head to the side. "Is that normal? I mean, I can't tell how old she is, exactly, but... isn't someone not doing their job, then? Like, is her family okay with this?"

"She's 16, I think. Was a lot younger when she started poking around Scarlet's stuff, though. And, to answer your question... well... sort of. She's..." Cassie closed her mouth, thought for a moment, opened it, then closed it again and sighed. "I don't know her complete history, but when I met her she was in PPS. And they're a bunch of idiots for the most part. Zojja 'took her in,' is the story, but I think that was Taimi's doing more than anything."

"PPS?" Haneul interjected.

"Progeny Protective Services. Government thing, takes care of kids whose parents don't or can't... or vanish into interdimensional portals or whatever, y'know. I imagine you guys have something similar in Hoelbrak?" Haneul nodded, and Cassie continued. "They're... they do their best, I guess. Some of them are really devoted and nice. Not so much the higher-ups, though: they tend to view childcare as more of an investment in future research staff than a... I don't know... than something more than that. Which it is! Which it should be!" She frowned, and Haneul noticed that she was clenching her fists. 

After a long moment, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Anyway, yeah. I'm pretty sure Taimi pulled some strings and wound up listed in Zojja's krewe, or maybe just showed up in Zojja's lab one day, or something. By the time anyone figured out what was happening, the wheels of bureaucracy had moved on, a couple of key PPS people were busy with an explosion during the Snaff Prize judging, and Zojja had gotten used to having someone actually listen to her for more than three seconds. And the rest is history. I'm not sure if anyone's okay with it per se, so much as they don't know what else there is to do."

"Spirits. I can't decide if that's impressive or terrifying." Haneul considered. "Or, I guess it's both. But I can't decide if I'm terrified for her safety, or terrified of what would happen if I was the one trying to reign her in. I guess I tend to like kids in theory, but I just can't make myself be strict with them. And I'm always scared that something bad will happen, and it'll be my fault for not keeping someone out of harm's way."

Cassie nodded. "Believe me, I know the feeling. Oh—" She pointed across the water. "Let's adjust course over that way." She continued as she let out the rope controlling the sail. "I've certainly tried my hand at keeping Taimi... well, that's the thing. To keep her safe, it feels like you have to keep her held down, and that's the last thing I want to do. Or could do—if Councilor Phlunt of all people couldn't keep track of her, I'm not even going to try. But I just..."

She shook her head. "I love that kid to death. I couldn't bear if anything happened to her. I'd probably have tried to adopt her, if I had five times more apartment space, and if I wasn't the stuffy boring old librarian. And if she'd wanted to be adopted, of course, which I know she doesn't. She belongs out there saving the world with the Pact, and Dragon's Watch. With people like you, y'know?" She sighed. "I know that, deep down. I do. But I can't help biting my claws to nubbins when she heads off to the dragon–battlefield and I hear about, like, bloodstone explosions and airship crashes."

Haneul laughed half-humorlessly. "Don't remind me."

Cassie cringed. "Er, sorry." 

"It's fine, it's fine." Haneul waved a hand dismissively and smiled faintly. "Hey, look on the bright side: I've already gotten all of the 'piloting a burning airship directly into the ground in a hostile jungle' out of my system. Checked that one straight off the list. Although, I guess I haven't piloted a burning airship into a hostile desert, yet, nor have I piloted a burning airship straight into the depths of the ocean, so I guess either or both of those could still happen next week..."

"Hey. Hey, Han..." Cassie tied off the rope she was adjusting and scooted over to put her arm around her friend—well, as much as their considerable size difference allowed for, anyway. "It wasn't your fault. There's nothing you could have done better, and you know that."

"Of course." Haneul tried to sound as convincing as possible, as nonchalant as could be. "I know. But that's what you sign up for when you accept command, right? A responsibility for your vessel, no matter the circumstances. Even if there's nothing I could have done." Which is far from true, she thought darkly: she could have done a thousand things. She could have... she could have saved them.

Cassie looked up at her after a long moment, murmuring, "I can see right through you, you know."

Haneul closed her eyes and shook her head quickly, and was immediately wrapped in a hug. She returned it with one arm and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly for a long moment, trying not to shake. "I'm—" She swallowed. "Thanks."

"You've given me the same," was the simple reply. "Every time."

They remained quiet for a while, listening to the wind pick up as they approached the river mouth and the open ocean. As the sail began to flutter more audibly in the breeze, Cassie went back to her adjustments, and they picked up speed fairly quickly.

"Okay, I admit, this is a bit more to handle," called Haneul over the wind as the hull took on a moderate tilt.

"Yeah, so, I was mostly just floating us around on the river current while we talked, before," Cassie admitted. "Athena's actually gotten me on the podium in the annual regatta before, though I've never won. Maybe if I left on a few more of the egregiously illegal mods, though, this could be the year..." She stood up on the deck, holding the mast with one hand and shading her eyes with the other to search the docks up ahead. "Oh hey, there's Zippi—let's see if we can splash her!"

"Er, wait, what?" Haneul spluttered. 

"Just take us riiiight up behind that blue sail, then bring us hard about parallel to her and duck," Cassie instructed. She hopped down and grabbed the shovel from the floor of the boat. "She'll never see us coming!"

"Uh... well, alright then, captain!" Haneul replied. "I guess!" Sure enough, a hundred feet or so up ahead of them was a similar boat with a blue Dynamics sail and silver trim instead of gold, helmed by an Asura who was seemingly having a shouted conversation with someone on the shore. Haneul considered their intended path. "So, just to be clear, if I screw this up..."

Cassie grinned. "Either we hit the dock and capsize, or we hit Zippi and just damage both boats... and maybe capsize. You can swim, right?"

"Well. I—" she started.

"Reeeeady about!" interjected her counterpart, beginning to reel in a rope with both hands to bring the sail in, tilting the vessel further away from the wind.

Haneul sighed, smiling and shaking her head. She grabbed hold of part of the boat with her free hand and steered them right up behind the opposing vessel, then threw the tiller to the other side and ducked to avoid the boom crossing over her head. As their boat tipped the opposite way and sped between the dock and the slow-moving boat, Cassie reached out with the shovel and dipped the head into the water, producing a spray of droplets that showered Zippi as they sailed past.

"Gotcha!" she shouted, waving to her friend. Zippi, for her part, yelped with surprise and, laughing and shaking her fist, yelled "I'll get you next time, Cass!" after them as they departed. 

"Ha-hah! Piece of cake," Cassie said, replacing the shovel and relaxing the sail as they headed away from the docks. "Told you we wouldn't crash! You did great!"

"Whew." Haneul's heartrate was still in the process of dropping back to normal. "You know, I don't think you actually said that at any point, Cass."

She pondered. "Did I not? Oh, you might be right... but I shouldn't have to say anything, should I? You know I always believe in you," she asserted, with lighthearted but complete sincerity.

Haneul smiled wryly, replying, "I knew you weren't the smartest Asura." The response was a stuck-out tongue and a head shake. "Anyway, where to now?"

She followed a pointed claw along the coast to the east, and soon they were making their way through moderate waves, each one thumping audibly against the broad side of the hull and spraying some mist into both friends' faces. Haneul had to raise her voice moderately to be heard clearly, while Cassie had to shout at basically full volume.

"Honestly, I can see how sailboat racing would be just as exciting as flying," she considered. "It makes a big difference that the vessel is so small—if we had airships this size, I bet it'd be the craziest sport by far!"

"Exactly. Meanwhile, an airship-sized boat is the epitome of boring," Cassie replied. "So, maybe I should sell this hull and buy one. Would be fitting for me, huh?"

"You're anything but boring, Cass, come on. Don't you have at least a hand in running, like... basically every data interface in a city made out of data interfaces?"

"Okay, sure, so equivalent to... the guy who refills all the torches in Hoelbrak when they burn out, right? Soooo exciting," she replied with a grin. "Hey, I never said it was a bad thing."

"Well, stop saying it like it is, then!" Haneul sighed. "It's like... if that guy takes a sick day, the whole city freezes over!"

"I don't... think that makes it an exciting job, really, Haneul."

"Okay, well, maybe not! I picked a bad analogy! Maybe it's like—" 

"C'mon, Han," Cassie interjected. "I knooow how much you like feeling like you're best friends with an Asura 'celebrity,'"—she added air quotes, balancing on the moving deck for a moment on just her feet—"but not everyone needs a spotlight. I'm perfectly happy sitting back with my data streams and my gardening and letting someone else brave the danger and reap the glory. Like, ahem, a certain Norn elementalist, maybe."

"Perfectly happy and content, you say, yep. Gotcha. No nail-biting at all, am I right?" Haneul raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, well... Taimi's different. But, that's why it makes sense, y'know? I think she needs someone stable and boring to be worrying over her. The alchemy knows she doesn't have anyone else like that... closest would be Braham, and he's anything but stable."

"...Surely that wouldn't be Braham Eirsson?" 

"The very same. They've had a bit of a falling-out, though, I hear..." Cassie sighed. "Don't know any details, though."

"Small world. I know him from the Jormag hunt. I take it Taimi's part of that other dragonslayer guild, then?" Haneul shook her head. "Braham's got a lot on his plate. Maybe more than he can handle. And I can see why he's taken so much on his shoulders, but... I don't know, I don't like it. We need unity in these times, if we're going to save the world."

"If *you're* going to save the world, you mean. But yeah." Cassie pointed to a gap in the shore where the water headed inland behind a small, rocky island crowned in foliage, and Haneul turned them toward it while they talked.

"Oh, come on, Cass, really. Look: what if Taimi heads out into the desert? Would you want to be Ms. 'boring stuffy old librarian' at home worrying, or would you want to be out there with her? You're smart, you're resourceful, and you always come prepared. And us ~dragonslaying hero~ people could use more being prepared. Otherwise, bad things happen. Like, I dunno, losing an entire airship fleet in 30 minutes, or whatever." She smiled, just a hint bitterly.

"Haneul..." The look Cassie gave her was some mix of exasperation and gentleness. She sighed. "But, I mean, it's easy to get a reputation as super-prepared all the time if you never actually do anything dangerous or unpredictable. I'm not a soldier, Haneul. I'm not built for that stuff. And I don't have a huge golem to pilot to fix that like Taimi does." She let out most of the tension in the sail, slowing them as they approached the shore. "...Wait a minute," she added, "Are you suggesting I go to the desert on your airship flight...?"

"Hey, listen: maybe what I'm suggesting is that I need an experienced sailor on board, to take over when I crash the thing directly into the ocean and it becomes a water-ship—"

"Haneul!" Cassie hopped over to her and put her hands on Haneul's shoulders, looking her straight in the eye. "For the love of moss. You're not going to crash another damn airship. I may worry about Taimi, but I'm not worried about you. Not one bit."

Haneul pounced. "Aha, but now you've jinxed it, haven't you! If I do crash, you might not hear about it for days and days. So from the moment I undock, you'll be sitting at home with your gardening spade, wondering and wondering if I'm drowning at sea—unless you come with me! And, like, bring a technomagical lifeboat, or whatever."

Cassie fell overdramatically over, miming fainting on the bench with a thud. "Why. Why are you doing this to me, Haneul. Just, why." After a moment, she sat up and rubbed her head. "Ow. Also, why did I do that?"

Haneul snorted. "Come on, just consider it?" she pleaded. "It'd be fun. And really, you actually are brilliant, and I could use any bit of help I can get if I'm going to avoid get shot out of the sky by a dragon. Again. Because, my fault or not, I'd just really rather avoid the whole scenario."

Cassie groaned. "Uuugh. Oh... fine. I won't write it off immediately. But I have, like, a thousand meetings, and if I don't keep pushing, Phlunt will rewire the entire beta optical trunk with quartz lenses to 'save money.' And probably use the sapphires in there to make a crystal ball for his living room, or something." She rolled her eyes.

Haneul raised an eyebrow. "Naturally. Few have a proper appreciation for... whichever way it is that sapphire is superior," she added jokingly, having no idea whatsoever.

"Right, Sorry." Cassie stuck out her tongue. "Suffice it to say, Phlunt and the council are a bunch of cheapskates, and I'm the last bastion of sanity, fighting an ~endless crusade~ to keep the city in one piece. And I never, ever, ever slack off and skip meetings whenever I feel like it, especially when it's nice out, or when my best friend is visiting." She grinned and tugged the rope controlling the sail loose, letting it flutter back and forth in the breeze. "I mean, I guess I can probably delegate most of the... and Wikki's been begging to come back from the priory for a while... plus, only 2 rows of garlic left to plant..." She thought for a moment, hand on her chin. "Listen: I'll think about it, okay? No promises."

"Thanks, Cass." Haneul picked her up easily and hugged her, then put her down and stretched. "I knew you'd say yes."

"I didn't say—argh! You, little..." Cassie shook her fist at her jokingly, then grabbed the tiller that she'd let go of to stretch. "Whoa, careful. Gets super shallow right about here," she added, steering them into the inlet. "It's a lot more embarrassing to get stuck on a mud flat at low tide than to hit another boat and capsize—and I would know."

"I guess I'll take your word for it," Haneul laughed. She peered into the jungle and up the rocks on either side of them, trying to see where they were heading. Nothing stood out. As far as she could tell, it seemed like a random, uninhabited island and a random, uninhabited cliff.

"So... what's up here, anyway?" she finally asked. "A secret valley hiding Tyria's largest candy cane node? Or... the field where you've been painstakingly growing your world's-largest-jack-o'-lantern competition entry?"

"Candy corn? Bleh!" Cassie exclaimed, making a face. "Now, I'm not a huge fan of a more than a few of Old King Oswald's great works, but I think candy corn is by far the worst. Does anyone in Tyria—creatures genetically devoid of taste buds excepted—actually enjoy eating candy corn?"

Haneul hesitated. "Well... actually..."

"How ~dare~ you." Cassie grinned and suddenly rammed the tiller all the way to the side, sending the nose of the craft directly into the mud on the island side of the inlet and jolting them to a stop. Haneul was thrown further off-balance by a playful shove and nearly fell into the water as Cassie grabbed and brandished the rake and continued, "I can't believe I've been sharing my vessel this whole time with a filthy candy corn–lover. Off with you! Walk the plank! This is a mutiny!"

"Yipe!" Haneul just barely caught herself on the railing, laughing. "Aw, c'mon, Cass, they get better the more of them you eat."

"So does cave fungus soup, but I don't see anyone making it the staple food of a national holiday," her friend retorted, picking up a rope attached to the bow and hurling it around a tree on the shore. "Wanna try some this Halloween?"

"Eugh. No, thank you," Haneul replied as she got to her feet. "Us Norn prefer to hunt our food, not scrape it off the wall, thank you very much."

"Your loss!" Cassie caught the rope and secured it to a cleat, then began to lower the sail. "Mum always said, 'eat your fungus so you'll grow up big and strong,'" she added. "And... it worked! Picking up and moving heavy items expert, right here." She flexed her free arm, showing no visible muscle whatsoever.

"A ringing endorsement," Haneul replied playfully. Following Cassie's lead, she helped attach the loose fabric to the boom with short cords. And when her friend grabbed the picnic basket and hauled it to the shore with a small grunt, she dutifully lifted the potted plant and tools out of the boat and followed along.


End file.
